November meet :: crafty de stash market

Hello Canberra owls!

This Saturday 23rd November we're holding our last crafty get-together of 2013 - and it's a super special one!

We're teaming up with the lovely ladies at Canberra Creatives for a craft de stash market!

Come along between 2pm-4pm to pick up some craft supplies bargains!

We'll also be running a limited number of stamp carving workshops - this is a fabulously easy and effective craft so do come along to try it out.

And of course as always you're welcome to bring along whatever project you might be working on - and a plate to share for arvo tea if you'd like - and join us for a cup of tea and a chat.

Don't forget we love show and tell too!

Hope to see you there!

Xo 

October meet:: BYO craft

Hello Canberra Owls!

How can it be October already? Our next meeting is being held this Saturday 26 Ocotber at 2pm, at the Downer Community Centre!

This month we'll be having a BYO meet - bring along whatever you're working on at the moment and join us for a cuppa and some afternoon tea. I love BYO meets, as there's always something interesting and new for show-and-tell! Perhaps you've finished something from a previous meet you'd like to bring along to share?

Don't forget to bring $5 for room hire and a plate to share for arvo tea if you'd like.

Please RSVP in the comments if you're coming along so that we know how many owls to expect =)

Don't forget too, that our Novemeber meet will be in conjunction with Canberra Creatives craft de-stash mini market. More info here: http://canberracreatives.com.au/connect/craft-de-stash-mini-market/ 

Hope to see you there!

Bron, George and Naomi

September meet - cancelled

Hello lovely Canberra Owls,

Spring has certainly sprung, but along with spring comes All The Things at once! We have our September meet in the calendar for this Saturday (24 September), but it is also school holidays, a long weekend AND the footy final!!

We have decided to cancel the meet for this month given there is just so much on. We're really sorry if this throws your plans into disarray (but its a long weekend, yay!).

Our October meet will go ahead as planned (Saturday 26 October) and of course we're hanging out with Canberra Creatives at the Craft De-Stash Mini-Market on Saturday 23 November! (Please let us know if you can come along for that one!)

We'll see you in October!

George, Bron and Naomi =)

August meeting

We had a tiny but lovely group along for the August get together!

The weather was so gorgeous that we brought a table outside and stitched in the sunshine.

Our next meeting will be Saturday 28 September - don't forget to pop it in your diary!

Hope to see you there =)

Xo

Mega Craft Day #2 :: 31 August

On Saturday 31 August, Canberra Creatives are holding their second 'Mega Craft Day'.

The first mega craft day was a lot of fun, so here at Canberra Brown Owls we are excited to be participating again. This time we will not only have a stall with information for potential new members, but will also be offering creative workshops in carving eraser stamps.
This is a craft we've had a lot of fun with when we've tried it at our regular meets - it is super simple to do, but the results are amazing.

We are looking for volunteers to help out on the day, both to look after the stall, answer questions and let people know about Brown Owls, and also to help with the actual workshops.
It doesn't have to be for the whole day - even if you can pop by for 45 minutes or an hour that would be wonderful! Please let us know in the comments below, or by email, if you can help =)

There is more information about the day in the flyer below, and over at the Canberra Creatives blog.

We hope to see lots of you there! =)

August meeting: BYO craft

Hi there Canberra Owls!

Just a quick reminder that this coming Saturday 24 August is the 4th Saturday of the month, which means it is time for our August get together! We'll be meeting from 2pm, at the Downer Community Centre!

This month we'll be having a BYO meet again - this means you should bring along whatever you're working on at the moment and join us for a cuppa and some afternoon tea.

I'll be bringing my cross stitch, and am happy to demonstrate to anyone who is interested in seeing how this cute craft works.

As always we are likely to have a couple of owls along who go alright with knitting needles and crochet hooks, so if you're working on something and have a question, or would like a quick refresher after our begginners workshops a few months ago you might just find yourself in luck.

Don't forget to bring $5 for room hire and a plate to share for arvo tea if you'd like.

Please RSVP in the comments if you're coming along so that we know how many owls to expect =)

Hope to see you there!

Bron, George and Naomi

July meet :: BYO craft

Hello Canberra Owls!

Our next meeting is being held this Saturday 27 July at 2pm, at the Downer Community Centre!

This month we'll be having a BYO meet - bring along whatever you're working on at the moment and join us for a cuppa and some afternoon tea. I love BYO meets, as there's always something interesting and new for show-and-tell! Perhaps you've finished something from a previous meet you'd like to bring along to share?

Don't forget to bring $5 for room hire and a plate to share for arvo tea if you'd like.

Please RSVP in the comments if you're coming along so that we know how many owls to expect =)

Hope to see you there!

Bron, George and Naomi

June meeting :: knitting & crochet

Helloooo!

Sorry for late notice - it has been a bit chaotic here! - our next meeting is being held this Saturday 22 June at 2pm, at the Downer Community Centre!
We'll be offering a knitting workshop for beginners like last month - so if you've always wanted to learn bring along your needles and some wool!
We're also offering a super simple beginners' crochet workshop where you can learn to make a granny square! Just bring along a crochet hook and some wool.
As always you're welcome to bring along whatever you're working on at the moment and join us for a cup of tea and some afternoon tea.

Don't forget to bring $5 for room hire, a plate to share for arvo tea if you'd like, and your needles or crochet hook and wool if you're interested in either workshop.
Please RSVP if you're coming along so that we know how many owls to expect =)

Bron x

May meeting :: knitting!

Hi Canberra owls!

May is nearly over, which means it is time for our next get together!!

The cooler weather, and maybe the yarn fumes from the Old Bus Depot Market Celebration of Wool day yesterday, has us obsessed with all things wooly - so this month we'll be offering a learn to knit workshop!

If you'd like to join in all you need to do is let us know in the comments, and bring along your own knitting needles and wool. For beginners about size 4mm needles, and a nice smooth (not fuzzy) 8ply (sometimes called DK) in a colour other than black is best - but if you have something else at home already that will be fine too. If you don't have any supplies but want to try it out just let us know and we'll try to arrange for extras.

Of course, if knitting isn't your thing that's ok too! Just bring along whatever you happen to be working on and join us for a chat and a cup of tea!

We will be meeting on Saturday May 25, 2pm at the Downer Community Centre 

Please also remember to bring $5 for room hire, and something to share for arvo tea if you would like!

It would be wonderful if you could RSVP in the comments below so that we know how many owls to expect - dont forget to tell us if you'd like us to bring spare needles/wool!

Please let us know if you have any questions!

Old Bus Depot Markets :: Celebration of Wool

May in Canberra means gorgeous autumn colour, and a move towards winter's frosty mornings and chilly nights.

It also means it's time for Canberra yarn lovers' favourite day of the year - the Celebration of Wool at the Old Bus Depot Markets - which is being held this Sunday 19 May.

The markets will be packed full of hand felted garments and accessories, designer knitwear, millinery, weavings, funky beanies and farm label knitwear. And, of course, yarn - glorious yarn - including hand spun and hand dyed yarns.

This year's stalls will also include the brand new Queanbeyan group of the NSW Knitter's Guild, who had their very first meeting just last week. If you want to know more about the Guild, or think you might like to join, make sure you pop by and see them.

One of our resident Brown Owls crochet and knitting experts, Renae from Suzy Hausfrau, will also be there with her gorgeous boutique yarns.

We would love to hear from you!

Are you planning to check out the Celebration of Wool? What will you be shopping for? Do you know of an ace stall holder who we must check out - help us plan our shopping time!

It would also be fun to know after Sunday if you bought anything, and what your plans are for it (stashing is a perfectly good plan!). Get in touch, and maybe we can have a bit of a yarny show and tell next week =)

Happy yarny crafting!

inspiration :: english paper piecing

Hello Owls!

Thanks to everyone who came by the Canberra Creatives Mega Craft Day to say hi on Saturday! I had a lot of fun on the Brown Owls stall - it was lovely to see so many familiar faces, and to make some new friends too!

I really enjoyed showing some of the things we've made at our meetings over the past few years,  and to talk to people a bit about one of my current favourite crafts: english paper piecing.

 

Of course there are LOADS of tutorials online to help you get started on your english paper piecing adventure, my favourite happens to be the series Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey blog) prepared for the Fat Quarterly blog - you can find them here.

On her blog Katy also has a really cool free pattern for a paper pieced cushion called Spring Carnival, which would be the perfect first project before committing to a whole quilt.

I was lucky enough to learn paper piecing in person from one of our very own owls, Michelle, who has taught it at a couple of Brown Owls workshops. Michelle also happens to have made my very favourite english paper pieced quilt - that's her twisted hexagons quilt hanging in last years Canberra Quilters Exhibition. You can read more about it, and see more photos, on her blog here and here.

And because I love looking at them, here are some of my favourite hexies from flickr.

1. jardins de grand-mère, 2. Grandmother's Flower Garden, 

3. Hexagon pillow, 4. Hexie party, 

5. in progress..., 6. Hexie Quilt Update 4-18-12

Of course, there's loads more inspiration to be had on flickr - check out the handsome hexies group (there are some really AMAZING pics!!)

I hope that's given you some places to go for more information, and inspiration, about english paper piecing! 

We'd love to hear from you too! 

Have you tried english paper piecing? Are you addicted to hexies? Do you know of any great tutorials or patterns we should check out and share? Have you made something lovely with english paper piecing that you'd like to show off? Pop a comment below, or shoot us an email so we can share!

Happy crafting!

ps. don't forget our next meeting will be held on Saturday 25 May, 2pm at the Downer Community Centre.

Mega Craft Day

Canberra Brown Owls will be at the Mega Craft Day organised by Canberra Creatives on Saturday 4th of May.
Bron will be there demonstrating the art of english paper piecing.
Do come and say hello!

 

Bookings for workshops are available here

Welcome!

Hello friends, and welcome to Canberra Brown Owls' corner of the internet.

We've been thinking for a while now about developing an online community for us to share projects, inspiration and general crafty goings on in our beautiful city (and surrounds!) - kind of an ongoing  virtual meeting,  if you like =)

So, taa daa! Our very own blog.

Details for our meetings will still be posted over on the Brown Owls members blog, but we'd like to blog a little more often, and keep things a little more local here.

We'll be looking for contributions to the blog from all of our friends so please get in touch if you have something to share! We'd love hear about what you're working on - whether they are projects you made using skills you've learned at our meetings or just something you love and want to show off =).
It would also be wonderful to know what's inspiring you, who's crafty blogs we should be reading, upcoming local crafty events, or if you have a tutorial you'd like to share.

As we're moving into the cooler weather here in Canberra we'd especially love to hear about what you're crafting/cooking/baking/doing to keep warm.

We'd also like to use this space to get the word out about local crafty businesses.
There is so much exciting stuff going on in Canberra craft-wise, sometimes it's just a bit hard to find! We're hoping to do a series of features on local crafty business people, so please drop us a line if you're interested and think you might fit the bill!


Please email us with any ideas you have of things you'd like to see or share share here, in the meantime grap a cuppa, and click around!
We hope to hear from you soon!

Happy crafting xo

ps big thanks and love to Mikaela from Danvers Creative for our gorgeous new logo! x